Eurocom are playing a very dangerous game. Memory Lane is a one-way road few should travel frequently and fewer should park their car on; Eurocom are going a step further and attempting a risky fixer-upper on a lavish yet aging property they invested in a year earlier. GoldenEye 007 on the N64 is the aged house in this metaphor and the long-established British developer are the renovators; the internet forums readying their hate threads are the traffic wardens in this instance and I guess Activision are the estate agent sticking their name on the project. I’m the nosy neighbour who got the chance to take a gander around Eurocom’s handiwork to see what changes they’ve made and how successful their risky venture has been. Colour me envious, because they’ve done a damn fine job and I want what they’ve got.

I’ll have to pay top dollar to acquire their property however; GoldenEye 007: Reloaded is a bona fide £40 retail title that looks more than set to compete with the sought after properties dominating the FPS market currently. Reloaded is set to be released early November, right around the time that both Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 open their doors to the masses. Housing metaphor fully aside, Reloaded is a full-on FPS experience (as it should be) and looks set to bring the fight to the big guns. Nostalgia hunters will no doubt be the first in line to add the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 copies to their shrines – next to the golden Wii controller – but there will be plenty to entice the lingering middle-of-the-road players or even the ones intentionally avoiding the Modern Warfare and Battlefield hype trains; if you’re a fan of the N64 classic or just looking for a different way to shoot virtual foes with lots of guns, Eurocom’s got you covered with a replacement bus service that’ll take you where you want to go.

First thing first, Reloaded offers players as a sizeable but more importantly approachable campaign mode which will be at least seven-to-eight hours and will contain both familiar traits of the original GoldenEye and elements of modernised first-person shooters. A necessarily updated HUD system, Move/Sharpshooter support, impressive destructible environments and the somewhat obligatory new film likenesses and accompanying voice work are changes fans will learn to live with; the legacy-making four player split-screen and a 007 Classic difficulty mode that lets you play through the game with non-regenerating health and health/armour pack pick-ups as your only source of keeping yourself alive.

“That glorious four-player split screen is back to its grin-inducing ways.”

Eurocom have tried their very best to keep the true essence of GoldenEye 007 alive, and this really does show in spite of all the changes made. Changes listed previously make up only a small number of the total, but it could and can be argued that while these changes come with a pinch of salt, they are a necessity to keep up with the trends. Have you tried playing the original N64 game recently? As brilliant as it was and still is, that game has not aged fantastically. What Eurocom are giving us is a second chance, the ability (if you’ll pardon the return to housing metaphors) to stay at your parents’ house for the night in your old room: things nay have been moved around and put in the attic, but the room still has your memories… as I discovered within minutes of stepping in to play the multiplayer component.

That glorious four-player split screen is back to its grin-inducing ways. There may be high-definition graphics and you may be playing it with a different controller on a different console with different people, but that experience you felt fourteen years ago is back for you to experience all over again. No, it won’t be quite the same but that’s to be expected; what we’ve been given however, is as good it can be. The co-op wants you to invite your mates round, put your TVs together and spend the night in; I played with three people I’ve never met before and I had a blast.

There is a key new addition that, while not a part of the multiplayer component (but does allow you to compete via leaderboards with friends), will provide a similarly entertaining experience. MI6 Ops gives players short missions with a plethora of GoldenEye 007 circa N64 variables to tweak the experience to your preference. The types of missions are widely varied too: Assault has you move across a map killing enemies as you go, Elimination Mode pits you against waves of enemies, Stealth wants you to kill every enemy without detection, and Defense sees you defend objectives from opposing force (the latter is the mode I got the most time with and it very quickly became clear that it will be the mode I spend the most time with).

The new and improved multiplayer modes Reloaded attempts to justify your alternate purchase with include the likes of an Attack/Death Escalation mode (which is best described as being in a similar vein to Black Ops’ ‘Gun Game‘ mode) and a Detonator Agent mode, which Rob Matthews (whom I interviewed) lightly quipped was like ‘pass the parcel’ only with a bomb and lots of death and destruction. There are a range of fourteen maps and a whopping fifty-eight characters to choose from now, who each have their own little skill, such as Oddjob’s grenade slot gets replaced by his hat.

“The map designs are uniquely intelligent and diverse, the weapon customisations affecting the gameplay in an imitable yet exclusive way; accolades awarded at the end of each game have a familiar feel but are again fitting for Reloaded’s own style.”

It is worth noting that both MI6 Ops and all the online modes available will carry with them a strong sense of familiarity, not with the original GoldenEye game, but with the modern-day Call of Duty series. There are more than a few similarities both Reloaded and Modern Warfare share, that stretch across a large portion of the online component in particular. Very noticeable things like the perks system – which allows players to choose performance enhancing abilities like improved accuracy or more health – along with the weapon customisation options that you can assign to different ‘Loadouts’, and the levelling system will be areas of the game that many Call of Duty fans will embrace and others may raise an eyebrow to; other little things however, like the hit marker and attachment options that may also feel familiar, can be shrugged off easily.

Reloaded’s multiplayer though does feel like a welcome change of pace from the Modern Warfare construct. The map designs are uniquely intelligent and diverse, the weapon customisations affecting the gameplay in an imitable yet exclusive way; accolades awarded at the end of each game have a familiar feel but are again fitting for Reloaded’s own style. I found myself very quickly falling into the routine adopted for the slew of online modern first-person shooter games but with differing loadout sets to my other games of choice – I found myself favouring a combination of flashbangs and a contact lens perk that stopped me from being affected by the flashes – and while the weapons haven’t fallen far from the armoury the choices available and the weapon selections suit the style you choose to adopt in-game. Some players (such as myself) may opt for the fun choice of Goldfinger’s revolver as their secondary weapon; others may choose to opt for two fully fledged secondary weapons with damage increasing perks that leaves them powerful but vulnerable. Attachments you fancy throwing on your guns will be unlocked the more you use your weapons too, so there’s actually an incentive to fall into routine and pick firm favourites.

“GoldenEye 007: Reloaded is bursting with content, and those itching to put the biggest of the AAA shooters to one side and try something different will feel more than welcomed in by Reloaded’s renovation of the seminal FPS game fourteen years prior.”

Should you choose to immerse yourself in the game further and have embraced the Move controllers, PlayStation 3 owners can use the game’s Move support and the Sharpshooter attachment to make Reloaded feel that little bit more alternate to Modern Warfare and Battlefield. The controls do take some getting used to though – tinkering with the settings to optimise the experience will be a necessity, as a first attempt will be somewhat reminiscent of playing GoldenEye 007 on the N64 for the first time in years and getting yourself familiar with the movement controls – but with practice the controls do become quite responsive and Move support in general is not a bad way to play the campaign through to completion. Some of the buttons such as the Square button to cover and the Move button on the controller attached to the Sharpshooter are awkwardly placed, and as such auto-aim does become quite critical to progression and your ability to play the game efficiently, but for the most part the control mapping on your attachments will (again with practice) feel responsive.

GoldenEye 007: Reloaded is bursting with content, and those itching to put the biggest of the AAA shooters to one side and try something different will feel more than welcomed in by Reloaded’s renovation of the seminal FPS game fourteen years prior. The wide array of multiplayer modes should alone justify the purchase (if Reloaded overcomes the challenge of releasing in November with strong sales and returning players) but with a decent sized campaign, Move support, the many expected nods to GoldenEye 007 and the tantalising MI6 Ops included also, there’s plenty to whet your appetite.

November as I’ve said before is a big month, and there are more than a few FPS games on the market to choose from, but you may just have to make some space (even if it’s just for a week-long rental); Bond is back.